01jan

Washington, D.C.

Plan It Out

Local Update
The 1,175-room Washington Marriott Marquis broke ground this past fall. When it opens in summer 2014, the LEED-certified property will serve as the official headquarters hotel for the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, to which it will be connected via a pedestrian bridge. The property will feature its own 100,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 30,000-square-foot grand ballroom, two 10,800-square-foot junior ballrooms, an 18,800-square-foot indoor event terrace and a 5,200-square-foot rooftop terrace. The building will also include five restaurants and a health club.

The downtown site of the District's former convention center is being redeveloped into a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood to be known as CityCenter. The project will be undertaken in three stages, the second of which includes a 350-room upscale hotel. Completion is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2013.

Also coming to the downtown area is a new luxury Me by Meliá hotel from Sol Meliá Hotels and Resorts. Financing for the property is still being secured, but initial plans call for 260 guest rooms, a restaurant and a jazz lounge.

Just north of downtown, Roadside Develop­ment has broken ground on a new 182-room Cambria Suites hotel as part of the massive CityMarket at O, a $300 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex now under construction. The all-suite Cambria property will feature an expanded dining area, a rooftop pool, a fitness center and an outdoor patio.

On the boutique front, ultra-upscale Capella Hotels and Resorts announced plans to redevelop an existing five-story building in the Georgetown neighborhood into the Capella Georgetown. When it opens in 2012, the property will have 48 rooms and suites, a premium restaurant, a lounge, a rooftop pool, a bar and a spa. Meanwhile, Marriott is moving forward with plans to rehabilitate the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the heart of the Adams Morgan neighborhood into an Ian Schrager-designed Edition Hotel. Construction should begin in 2014, and plans call for 174 guest room, a restaurant, two bars, a fitness facility and a rooftop pool.

Chef Bryan Voltaggio, nominated for a James Beard Award and a finalist on the sixth season of Bravo TV's hit show Top Chef, plans to open two new restaurants in the District. The first, as yet unnamed, eatery will be a bistro/steak house hybrid in the Chevy Chase Pavilion, near the Embassy Suites. The second restaurant will be called North Market Kitchen and is slated to open in Voltaggio's hometown of Frederick, Md.